Morbidity and mortality in elderly patients with heart failure managed with a comprehensive care model vs. usual care: The UMIPIC program.

Background: Elderly patients with heart failure (HF) have a high degree of comorbidity which leads to fragmented care, with frequent hospitalizations and high mortality. This study evaluated the benefit of a comprehensive continuous care model (UMIPIC program) in elderly HF patients.

Methods And Results: We prospectively analyzed data from the RICA registry on 2862 patients with HF treated in internal medicine departments.

C-reactive protein for discriminating treatment failure from slow responding pneumonia.

Background: The management of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) who fail to improve constitutes a challenge for clinicians. This study investigated the usefulness of C-reactive protein (CRP) changes in discriminating true treatment failure from slow response to treatment.

Methods: This prospective multicenter observational study investigated the behavior of plasma CRP levels on days 1 and 4 in hospitalized patients with CAP.

L-arginine levels in blood as a marker of nitric oxide-mediated brain damage in acute stroke: a clinical and experimental study.

There are no useful markers in blood of nitric oxide (NO)-mediated brain damage. Because l-arginine (l-arg) is the only known substrate for NO generation, the authors investigated the plasma profile of l-arg after cerebral ischemia, and the relationship of L-arg concentrations in blood with stroke outcome and infarct volume in a clinical and experimental study. l-Arg levels were determined with high-performance liquid chromatography in blood and CSF samples obtained on admission, and in blood 48 hours after inclusion, in 268 patients admitted with a hemispheric ischemic stroke lasting 8.

A review of the state of research into the role of iron in stroke.

Iron is a double edged sword for living systems, as it is essential for a wide range of metabolic processes while it also has potential deletereous effects. Oxidative metabolism during ischaemic stroke together with high iron content in the brain synergise to increase the oxidative damage. High plasma ferritin, as a measurement of iron stores, and high cerebrospinal fluid ferritin have been related to poor outcome in stroke patients.